The present invention relates to animal feed additives comprising galactanase enzymes. More specifically the invention relates to animal feed additives comprising a arabinogalactan endo-1,4-xcex2-galactosidase and/or an arabinogalactan endo-1,3-xcex2-galactosidase.
Traditionally animal feed diets for e.g. pigs and poultry are mainly based on cereals and soybean meal. However, the use of alternative products such as peas, beans, sunflower meal, rapeseed meal, lupines, cereal by-products and sugarbeet pulp has received increasing interest in recent years. In some of these products, e.g. sunflower meal, rapeseed meal, lupines, cereal by-products and sugarbeet pulp, low digestibility often limits their inclusion in appreciable quantities in animal feed diets. This low digestibility is associated with the composition of the carbohydrate fraction in these products, which mainly consists of non-starch polysaccharides. Non-starch polysaccharides are not degraded in the small intestine by the digestive enzymes of monogastric animals, and hence do not offer their full energy potential to the animal. Hydrolysis of these polysaccharides are known to solve two problems, one of animal welfare and the other relating to an improved economy in production.
Feed enhancing enzymes are enzymes that by improving feed digestibility are able to increase the efficiency of the feed utilization. Feed enhancing enzymes function by enhancing the digestibility of feed components. This enhancement may e.g. be brought about by degradation of poly- and oligosaccharides in cereals and vegetable proteins.
Established feed enhancing enzymes include xcex1-galactosidases, phytases, xcex2-glucanases, proteases, cellulases and xylanases. However, the use of galactanases and xcex2-galactosidases as feed enhancing enzymes has never been suggested.
It has now been found that a certain group of enzymes designated galactanases are particularly beneficial for incorporation into animal feed, in particular when incorporated together with one or more other feed enhancing enzymes.
Accordingly, in its first aspect, the present invention provides animal feed additives comprising effective amounts of galactanase enzymes.
In another aspect the invention provides a method of improving the energy uptake from an animal diet, which method comprises supplementation of the animal feed additive of the invention to monogastric animals.
In yet another aspect, the invention provides a process for pre-treatment of animal feed, by which process the animal feed is subjected to the action of a galactanase enzyme.